REMARKS ON VEGETABLE GROWTH, ETC. 127 
question with which we set out—How does it happen to be so ; 
and can any reason be given to explain it ? 
This curious circumstance is not confined to fruit-trees only : 
if the florist wishes to have a fine bloom from his bulbs and tubers, 
instead of keeping them constantly excited, as they would be in 
the open air in this temperate climate, where there is no torrid 
heat to arrest their summer growth, he takes them out of the soil 
entirely, and keeps them dry till planting time. So to insure a 
good bloom of the Cereus, or Cacti , they are placed during sum¬ 
mer close under a south wall, there to be kept dry, and scorched 
by the sun to produce a stagnation of their growth, and cause a 
healthy development of flowers, which, were the plants kept in a 
growing state, and treated with water, would either fall off un¬ 
opened, or be produced into shoots. 
This precocity of flowering or fruiting may be brought about 
by many other means known to florists and gardeners. Over¬ 
drying seeds — starving a seedling — frequent transplanting— 
ringing or strangulating a stem or branch — grafting the mature 
shoots of the top of a tree upon a shoot nearer the root, or upon a 
young stock—are all practices which expedite the flowering and 
fruiting of cultivated plants, whether herbs, shrubs, or trees. 
Now, we are all pretty well acquainted with these effects, but 
there are many different opinions as to the causes. If we take into 
consideration the parts and constitution of the generality of plants, 
we see them composed of a root, a stem or stems, leaves, flowers, 
and fruit. The last is the principal and final effort of the plant, 
or of that part of the plant which is destined to bear or support it. 
From the moment the seedling springs from the ground it passes 
through its various stages of growth till its reproductive organs 
are mature, when, if it be an annual, the whole individual dies ; if 
a herbaceous perennial, the summer stems only die when the seed 
is ripe ; and in the case of shrubs and trees, whose stems are per¬ 
manent, their foliage, their flowers, and their fruit or seeds are 
annually renewed from buds, each of which may with great pro¬ 
priety be considered in the light of a distinct individual plant, for 
they possess all the parts and properties of a young plant. But 
buds are of several descriptions on the Pear-tree : there are what 
are called leaf-buds and flower-buds ; the former are known by 
their more slender and pointed shape ; the latter, by their larger, 
and more rotund form. Leaf-buds are expanded into summer- 
